SERGEANT BALSAM and Nancy stepped over at the same time to get a closer look at the earring.
“Where did you find it?” Balsam demanded.
“It was inside the left-hand pocket of this parka,” the officer replied.
The sergeant turned to Rob. “Is this your parka?”
Rob looked stunned. “Why, yes, sure. But I never—”
Balsam pulled a small card out of his shirt pocket and began to read.” “‘You have the right to remain silent. You’ ”
“Sergeant,” Nancy cut in urgently. “Before you go any further, may I look at that earring?”
Balsam frowned at her a moment, then said, “Okay, but no funny business.”
The police officer held up the earring. Nancy peered at it, then bent to see the back. “Doesn’t that stud fastener look awfully modern to you, Sergeant?” she asked.
“That’s not something I know a lot about,” the sergeant replied in an even tone.
Nancy leaned in so that her face almost touched the police officer’s hand, and then straightened up. “Sergeant,” she said, “I’m no expert, either. But I’m ready to bet you that the Empress of Austria didn’t wear ruby earrings stamped ‘Made in Hong Kong’!”
“What! Here, let me see that!” Balsam sputtered. He grabbed the earring from the officer and carried it over to the window, where the light was better. When he turned back, his face was red with anger and embarrassment.
“All right, so this is a fake,” he admitted grudgingly. “But don’t forget that the thief replaced the stolen jewelry with fakes that looked a lot like this, to delay discovery of the theft. This earring may not be part of the loot, but it’s evidence just the same.”
“I never saw it before!” Rob protested.
Nancy put her hand on his arm. “It wouldn’t matter even if you had,” she told him. “There’s no law against having a piece of costume jewelry in your pocket. Am I right, Sergeant Balsam?”
He gave her a look in which she saw grudging respect mixed with his irritation. “That’s right. But I’m going to hold on to this earring all the same. I’ll give you a receipt,” he told Rob.
“It’s not mine,” Rob insisted. “I don’t want a receipt.”
Balsam paid no attention. He scribbled out the receipt and handed it to Rob, who stared at it as if it were poison.
Balsam turned to his officers. “Are you done in here?” he asked. When they nodded, he said, “Okay, let’s move out.”
Nancy followed the police to the door. “Sergeant, have you decided to check out that gas can?” she asked. “I really think—”
He held up his hand. “I know, I know. It’s an important clue. Well, Ms. Drew, it’s not really any of your business, but we went by that shed this morning and collected the gas can. It’s empty, by the way, and it has no fingerprints whatsoever on it.”
Nancy stared. “But, Sergeant, don’t you see why there aren’t any prints? Because somebody carefully wiped them off!”
“I thought of that,” Balsam said patiently. “Also it’s wintertime, and around here people wear gloves when they’re outside. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot to do.”
He turned and started to leave, but Nancy said, “Wait a minute. Don’t you want the museum label I found yesterday?”
Sergeant Balsam paused long enough to take the white label she held out. He stuffed it in his pocket without looking at it, then followed his two officers down the stairs.
When Nancy reentered Rob’s room, he said, “If it hadn’t been for you, he would have arrested me.”
“He doesn’t really have anything you could call evidence, just some peculiar circumstances.” She put a hand on his arm. “Rob, there’s something I need to know. Where did you get that earring?”
“Nancy, I never saw that earring before in my life,” he said earnestly.
She nodded. “That’s what I thought. After all, if you’d known the earring was in your pocket, you would have thrown it away rather than get caught with it. The question is, when and how did it find its way into your pocket?”
“The last time I wore the parka was to the restaurant last night. And all day yesterday after my crew jacket disappeared.”
“Where did you leave it at the restaurant?” asked Bess.
“On the coatrack near the door.” Rob shook his head. “This is hopeless. Anybody could have planted that earring in my pocket.”
“Anybody who was at the restaurant,” George said.
Nancy thought immediately of Whorf. He had seen them come in, and he had to have passed the coatrack when he left while they were still having dinner and their coats were still hanging there. But Nancy couldn’t be sure Whorf knew Rob, even by sight.
Bess wrinkled her brow. “Do you really think the earring could have been in your pocket all evening without your knowing it?” she asked.
“What are you trying to say?” Rob retorted. “That I knew about it? That I had something to do with the theft?”
“No, of course not,” Bess said. She looked taken aback by the force of his reply. “But if we’re trying to figure out when and where it was put there, it’d help to know when it wasn’t there. Am I right?” she added, turning to Nancy.
“Sounds good to me,” Nancy said. “Rob, can you remember how often you reached into that pocket?”
“Sure,” he said promptly. “Practically never. Since I’m usually wearing gloves, I hardly ever use the pockets to keep my hands warm. For all I know, the earring could have been there for weeks.”
“Hmmm,” Nancy said. “I was hoping that something about this case would turn out to be simple. Still, the business with the earring does tell us one thing. The thief is still around, and the stolen jewels probably are, too.”
“Why do you say that?” George asked.
“Why would anyone try to frighten me off if he’d already gotten rid of the jewels? Also, the thief left so many false clues incriminating Rob that the police have spent all their time questioning him.”
“Okay,” Bess said, “but where does that take us?”
“How about this?” Nancy replied. She began pacing back and forth as she spoke. “The thief is still on campus. Whoever it is can’t leave right away without creating suspicion—or maybe the thief put the jewels in a safe hiding place and has to wait to retrieve them. Framing Rob is meant to keep the police busy and distract them from looking too hard elsewhere on campus. Then, when we started investigating, the thief felt very threatened.” She paused and faced the others, who were looking at her expectantly. “I think we can expect more tries at planting evidence against Rob and at scaring us off.”
“Creepy!” said George. “And I thought we were coming here for a fun weekend!”
“We can still have fun,” Nancy said. “We just have to be careful.”
“Oh, no,” Bess said. “Ned and Jerry are expecting to meet us down at the lake. I bet they’re wondering what’s happened to us.”
Just then, there was a knock on the door, which opened slightly. “Hey, Rob,” Jerry said. “Have you seen—” His gaze landed on the girls. “There you are. We got cold waiting by the lake, so we decided to come look for you.”
When Ned and Jerry heard about the search warrant and the earring, Ned said, “We’d better solve this case fast if we want to keep Rob out of jail.”
Rob cleared his throat and said, “Look, I really appreciate what you’re doing, all of you. But I don’t want you to ruin your weekend just because of this mess I’m in.”
“How about this,” Ned said, “the rest of the morning, we try to get more evidence to clear Rob. Then, after lunch, we tear ourselves away from the case and do something carnival-y—and that includes you, Detective Drew,” Ned added sternly.
“How about hitting the slopes?” Jerry suggested. “It’s a good day for it.”
Seeing their eager expressions, Nancy let out a resigned laugh. “Sounds good to me,” she said.
• • •
Three hours later Nancy was in Susan’s dorm room, fastening the shoulder strap of her new turquoise ski overalls. She quickly checked her reflection in the mirror. The color of her outfit made her eyes seem even more blue.
It had taken longer than she expected to try to get in touch with Whorf. She got an answering service, and they refused to put her call through or give her his home phone number. She hadn’t made any progress at all, and now she was late to meet the rest of the gang downstairs.
She was just reaching for her skis when Susan came in.
“Hi,” Susan said, brightly. “Great overalls. Going skiing?”
“Yes,” Nancy replied, smiling. “Do you want to join us?”
“I wish I could, but I’m working at the museum all afternoon,” Susan replied.
“Too bad. And you were up so early this morning, too. Don’t you ever get a chance to goof off and relax?”
Susan seemed surprised by the question. She looked down, then mumbled, “Yeah—I mean, sure.”
Nancy gave her a curious look, then remembered that everyone was still waiting for her. “Well, I’ll see you later.” Gathering up her equipment, she left the room.
All six of them managed to squeeze themselves and their ski equipment into Jerry’s battered sedan for the half-hour drive to the ski area. At the base lodge, they put on their boots, then stacked their skis on the rack outside while they went into the lodge to buy lift tickets.
In line, Nancy glanced through the big windows of the lodge snack bar, then did a double-take. She was staring right into the eyes of William Whorf. Whorf quickly lowered his glance, but Nancy knew he had recognized her before looking away.
They were nearly to the ticket booth when Ned said, “Look, Rob, there’s one of your favorite people. Try to keep cool, okay?”
Greg, Susan’s boyfriend, was just pushing off toward the chair lift.
“The earring!” Rob exclaimed. “He must have slipped it in my pocket the other night at the student center. That’s why he wanted to pick a fight with me!”
He made a move as if to leave the line and go after Greg, but Ned grabbed his arm. “Not now,” he said. “We’re supposed to be having fun, remember?”
Rob grumbled but remained with the group as they got their passes and headed for the slopes. As the chair lift carried Nancy and Ned up the hill, she thought about Rob’s accusation. She was becoming more and more positive that Greg was the thief they were looking for. He was probably the one Whorf had gotten to do his dirty work. Greg certainly had a grudge. Something was nagging at her, though—some detail she couldn’t quite remember. But what?
At the top of the slope, she wiggled her shoulders to loosen up, did a couple of knee bends, and glanced over at Ned. “Ready?” she asked.
He nodded, and she pushed off. The snow was great, several inches of powder over a firm base, and she adjusted her line to pick up speed. Noticing a small mogul just in front of her, Nancy crouched lower, then sprang up as she swooped up it. Grinning, she felt herself become airborne.
In a flash, Nancy realized that something was terribly wrong. Her right ski! It had come loose! In another instant she was going to hit the ground with one ski on and the other dangling at the end of the safety strap, and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it!